Saturday, November 16, 2013

Remaking old games or revitalising old franchises is an appealing prospect for developers, as amongst other reasons, to allow an old game to be playable by a new generation of players on modern hardware, and can be less work than starting a new game from scratch. However, not every old game can get by with a simple remake, and when large-scale changes are made to an existing product, there is also the danger of losing some of the merits of the original that warranted the remake. In some cases, the original gameplay and/or story is strong enough to stand without changes, and updates can be largely cosmetic, and in other instances, new content can be added to supplement the existing game. Rance 01 is a unique case, as none of the original game's features are good enough by the standards of modern eroges to stand on their own, but as the series that originated from this game has maintained a lasting popularity over 24 years, in order for a remake of Rance 1 to be successful, what was necessary, was a complete rewrite of the game from the ground up.

Rance 01 is a remake of a 1989 eroge Rance - Hikari wo Motomete, commonly referred to as Rance 1. The game's package release was limited to pre-orders, but it is available for download purchase on various stores, including dlsite. The original Rance 1 has been released by Alice Soft for free download on the Alice Soft Archives.